Random chatter...

[Jim von Krieg]

Reporting indicates there is heavy fighting in Germany between Nort's Rag Tag Circus and von Krieg's Heroes. As the battle ebbs and flows, casualties on both sides are mounting.

Nort's forces appear to be "floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee" as he uses Muhammad Ali's rope-a-dope strategy. He bides his time and uses just enough energy to hammer me as I attempt to close on the village VP hexes.

While I am using Foreman's legendary right hook to take the village. It's my technique of converging columns that has spread my forces thin. Small force south of the village to hold the critical VP hexes. Infantry and SP AT to cover the center and left flank. Large armored force of Pershings, Chaffees and Shermans to sweep the eastern VP hexes up, move to the high ground and attack into the village. Along the way, I routed very light opposition by blasting a few German Pumas and halftracks.

As I press from the high ground towards the VP hexes, a company of Chaffees burns bright under the Germans high velocity guns. Their funeral pyres litter the plateau's landscape. A platoon of Pershings are hammered into ineffectiveness. However, the Shermans and other Pershing platoon hold up to continue to press the issue.

This plan isn't going quite as well as I had hoped. I'm doing damage though. Whatever he exposes, I shoot. Scratch some infantry and Jagdpanzers. Beat up the Tiger a tad. Blast a AAA truck harassing my infantry sitting on the high ground to the west to look down into the village. Blast lurking halftracks when they present themselves. I can already tell, every point is going to count in this.

As I push forward on the right, I get knocked back with Nort going into hull defilade back in the village. It's impossible to dig him out. He pops out, disrupts my attack and melts back into the village every time. Now that I can see down into the village, this is looking harder with the menagerie of German panzers lurking back there.

Last turn, the expected VP hex rush is underway. He surges forward to lock down the remaining three VP hexes we're contesting. Popping smoke with his engineers guarantees that the two at the eastern bridge into the village are immune to my rush. The last VP hex is covered by a crossfire of Panthers and Tigers with an engineer platoon and a Jagdpanzer sitting on the objective. This is not going to be easy. I smoke a key hex, drop two airstrikes and hope for the best.

Only one airstrike flies. Not sure what it hit, but it took out something. I surge forward, Pershings into the smoke. Panther OPFIRE proves ineffective against the Pershings in the smoke. First phase complete.

Now, Shermans race out to pound the Jagdpanzers and engineers. Excellent results! A retreat and a disruption. Pershings surge forward to assault into the VP hex. German engineers wilt under the assault, retreating back into the village. My infantry strolls forward to sit on the objective.

My Jacksons race forward along the ridge in the center hoping against hope to slip in behind the infantry blocking near the eastern bridge into the village. That hope is shattered as a Panther lights him up as he moves forward. My last armor push against the smoked engineers east of the village proves ineffective. Blasting away at point blank range yields no results.

For me, the fight proved to be a nail biter with me looking over my shoulder all the time. I am loath to strike a position head on, I split my forces to sweep to the east, cross the river, seize the VP hexes near the bridgehead, then move up to the plateau to attack down into the village. Think Lee sending Jackson on a flanking maneuver.

At the same time, I leave a trail force to screen the VP hexes I seized on the opening turns. As I look back on this, I think the only reason this strategy was even close to effective is that Nort adopted his rope-a-dope strategy to bide his time and let me come to him.

My blocking force is relatively small (Pershing, Sherman and Infantry platoon with covering fire from M36 nearby) and looking at the enemy forces not too far in front of them, they were probably inadequate for the task. If Nort had sortied against my blocking force while the bulk of my forces were moving to the east, I would have most probably been cut to ribbons piecemeal.

At the end we see-sawed back and forth with rapier thrusts. Neither of us really committed all in. Any time we left something exposed, the other shot it to pieces. We took what the other gave us and were content with that. I'd surge forward, then get slapped around for my trouble.

Nort never seemed willing to overexpose his force to counter-fire and was consistently laying smoke with his engineers. This is the mark of a seasoned opponent, but I definitely feel there were a few times if he had come out of the village he would have mopped the floor with me as I felt super exposed with no OPFIRE to hold the German panzers back.

Against a disciplined opponent, this scenario is a tough nut for the Amis to crack. It definitely tested my skills and I felt near the end on the verge of disaster, but never quite going over the edge. Even though the game says I won, I don't feel like I won as I sit on the last objective staring down the barrels of multiple Panthers and Tigers.

I really dislike the mad dash for VP hexes at the end that we are forced to pursue, but its definitely the result of the very tight battle Nort and I fought. He's an excellent opponent and one that adds a bit of history to the e-mail chatter. Salute!

Regards,

Jim